Bright rainbow-coloured glass fins for the facade of the tower’s lower floors at 1190 Burrard Street will demarcate the site as the gateway into the Davie Village from its eastern end. This architectural feature wraps around a two-level, 13,400 sq ft space for QMUNITY a community and social service for the LGBTQ community, which is frequented by youth.
QMUNITY is currently located in a small, outdated space two blocks west on Bute Street. Plans for a new expanded home for the not-for-profit organization have been in the works for the past two decades, with this particular location confirmed by the municipal government in 2014.
As well, the motion directs city staff to report back to city council with recommendations on allowing additional height and density for social housing in other zoning residential zoning districts, including single-family neighbourhoods and mixed commercial-residential areas.
Map of RM-3A, RM-4, and RM-4N zoning districts in Vancouver. (City of Vancouver)
Apart from the benefit of more social housing, this would allow proponents to skip the rezoning process, and go straight to the development permit application process, which would reduce costs of between $400,000 and $800,000 for each proposal and shave off a year or longer from the municipal government’s review process.
All three major housing types condominiums, purpose-built market rental housing, and social housing exceeded their annual targets for the year.
Over half (53%) of the new Vancouver housing approvals over the year were for purpose-built and social housing doubling the number since 2019. As well, over 350 new below-market rental homes were approved, an increase of fivefold over the previous year.
Nearly half (48%) of the units were approved under the Moderate Income Rental Pilot Program, entailing 928 market rental homes and 233 below-market rental homes.
These are the number of approved units for each home type in 2020, and how the performance meets against annual approval targets:
O’Donnell is a relatively new addition to the city, as she first took on the role of deputy director of the department in March 2019.
Prior to her time in Vancouver, she served various roles with the City of Dallas over the span of nearly two decades, including the director of planning, interim assistant city manager, and chief resilience officer.
She was also the director of planning and development for Las Vegas, Nevada and Arlington, Texas.
Theresa O’Donnell (City of Dallas)
“On behalf of City Council, I’m beyond thrilled to welcome Theresa O’Donnell as our new director of planning, a role that has never been more critical as we start building back from the COVID-19 pandemic and renew our focus on delivering housing that works for residents,” said Mayor Kennedy Stewart.